One of the most disastrous situations in boating is “taking on water”. If you call the coast guard for anything they will always ask you “are you in any danger of running aground or taking on water?”)

There a lot of ways a boat can take on water: a big waved could roar over you and “down-flood” through the open hatches (which is why in big storms you “batten down the hatches!) You could also suffer a damaged through-hull fitting which is a plumbing problem (most likely of these, by the way…so you take many active steps to ensure it doesn’t happen), or you could strike something while under way: a rock, a log, a shipping container (big as a truck and solid steel: they fall off of big ships en-route to Long Beach from China all the time and just drift around out there lurking…) or even a whale lounging on the surface! I have actually had nightmares, actual dreams, about waking up on my boat and putting my foot down on the floor into standing water. It is amazing how quickly I can come instantly and completely awake and check out every inch of my boat when this happens!

OK, none of these things happened! But I was sailing out towards Catalina island the other day for a few days cruise when, at about 7 PM, the cell phone rang. Julio, my son-in-law said ”W are OK, Kenzie is OK, but the basement is flooding!” (my basement in salt lake…). As it turned out, an outside hose bib froze and split earlier in the winter and now that it is warmer, someone turned on the hose spigot and let the down-flooding begin. When it was discovered that evening, our basement had about 3 inches of water throughout.

You know, I always sort of figured my boat would sink before my house did, but again, as in so many things, I was wrong.

Julio, Kenzie, Nick, and Natalie (our roommates in the basement) quickly got the water shut off and soon had everyone they know over there pulling their stuff out of the basement. Thanks to you all who helped! (By the way, Julio went for pizza and many of you had already left. Please come again and we will have another pizza party!) Also, within a a few minutes, our friend and perfect handy-dude Robert Didas was over there patching the plumbing so we could turn the water back on. We also owe a huge thanks to our insurance folks at Farmers Insurance. I have made very few perfect decisions in my life but selecting Farmers to insure our home was one of them. Within an hour they had the disaster recovery folks from ServiceMaster over there pulling up the carpet and beginning the drying out process. They all were amazing!

Here we are 3 days later: ServiceMaster is still drying us out; our Farmers adjuster, Sean, has been out to inspect the damage, and already handed us a check for the repairs, with instructions to let us know if anything else is discovered that needs fixed and he will add to it. Robert is standing by to begin repairs as soon as it is dry enough. Nick and Natalie are living with friends and family until they can move back in. Kenzie and Julio are up to their elbows dealing with all this. And I am exhausted just thinking about all they all have done. Whew!

PS: When this all happened I told McKenzie I would be on my home the next day to help manage it all and she quickly said “No dad, we have it all under control, you would just be in the way!” I guess you know your kids are going to be all OK in life when they tell you that. (Am I really “old and in the way“? Somehow I thought I would feel older when that happened….